Entries Tagged 'Internet' ↓

Okay, I have whined about this quietly long enough after I missed all 3 public meetings tonight. I have made several councilors and the city clerks office aware of the multiple glitches their is with their program SIRE that they use to post the public meetings online. What the Heck already? I mean I can understand it not working a few times, but this is starting to get ridiculous. Taxpayers pay for this service? Right? So when something isn’t working it should get fixed? Right? And not 2 or 3 days later? Right? This is software and programming not rocket science.

And this is the part I don’t get (an email from the clerk’s office tonight);

Scott,
Thank you for your email. Our office and our IT Department are aware of the issue.
The meeting may be viewed on CityLink (Channel 16).

Great. So why are the video cameras able to transmit to the city’s TV station but not to the internets? My response;

Online, there are two groups of people: those who comment and everybody else.

While comment threads across the Web can sometimes spur lively debate by offering a forum for the free exchange of opinions, they’re just as often a bulletin board for the neurotic, profane and frenetic rantings of anonymous strangers.

Lieberman and his staff on the Senate Committee on Homeland and Security and Government Affairs say that the bill limits the powers that the president already has as a result of the 1934 Communications Act, which was amended in the 1996 bill. The president already has the power to “shut off any and all regulated telecommunications if he deems it necessary for national security.” Leslie Phillips, the communications director for the committee,”said “The very purpose of this legislation is to replace the sledgehammer of the 1934 Communications Act with a scalpel.”

“Lieberman’s Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 …requires that owners of critical infrastructure, a definition that dates to the PATRIOT Act, work with the newly created director of the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications within the Department of Homeland Security, to develop a risk assessment and a plan to mitigate their risks in the case of a national cyber emergency.”None of those response plans expressly require that telecommunications providers develop a kill switch; in fact, the director is prohibited from requiring an critical infrastructure owner or operators from using any specific mechanism.

The owners and operators of covered critical infrastructure shall have flexibility to implement any security measure, or combination thereof, to satisfy the security performance requirements described in subparagraph (A) and the Director may not disapprove under this section any proposed security measures, or combination thereof, based on the presence or absence of any particular security measure if the proposed security measures, or combination thereof, satisfy the security performance requirements established by the Director under this section.

Phillips reiterated this point with TPMDC: “There is not a ‘kill switch.'” When asked what measures might be envisioned by the legislation, she said, “A software patch, or a way to deny traffic from a certain country. All these measures were be developed with the private sector, not imposed on it.”

In addition to the measures that allow companies to come up with their own ways to mitigate the risks to their companies (and customers) from cyber attacks, and the requirement that they use the least disruptive means possible and attempt to mitigate larger impacts, the legislation also only allows the President to impose the state of emergency for 30 days, with a potential extension of 30 days. Under current law, he is allowed to shut down any and all telecommunications infrastructure for as long as he likes.”

Six Republican senators have introduced an amendment that would block the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its recently announced Net neutrality policy.

Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced the amendment to an appropriations bill. It would prevent the FCC from getting funding for any initiative to uphold Net neutrality. According toThe Hill, the co-sponsors are Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

The move appears to be an attempt to pre-empt the FCC’s expected new policy to ensure that Internet service providers don’t discriminate between different types of information on their networks.

On Monday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech in which he outlined the FCC’s plan to enforce Net neutrality, a position President Barack Obama held during his campaign for president.

In recent years, concern has grown that some Internet service providers are slowing down “access to high speed Internet for things like Internet-based voice calls, video streaming, and legal file sharing (that carriers might wish to block or at least charge extra for),” writes Ian Paul at PCWorld magazine.

While Net neutrality is supported by Internet-reliant companies such as Google and Microsoft, it is opposed by major Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. Those three have come out against Genachowski’s plan, ChannelWeb reports.

The part of Genachowski’s plan that ISPs are most opposed to, according to PCWorld’s Paul, is that it would apply to mobile carriers as well — cellphones, Blackberries and the like. Bandwidth for wireless is not infinite, and some carriers have argued that they need to shape some traffic on their networks in order to make sure there is space available for everyone.

But, as the experience of other countries has shown, that is not necessarily the way “traffic shaping” is used. In Canada, throttling some types of traffic on the Internet — not on wireless — hasbecome commonplace. It is used to slow down peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

“Broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications,” Genachowski said in his speech. “Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider. The Internet must continue to allow users to decide what content and applications succeed.”

“I am deeply concerned by the direction the FCC appears to be heading,” Sen. Hutchison said in a statement. “Even during a severe downturn, America has experienced robust investment and innovation in network performance and online content and applications. For that innovation to continue, we must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations.”

A Net neutrality bill is expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives this fall.

Ever since Iran’s presidential election a few days ago, there have been massive protests in the country’s urban centers. While the government has been successful in shutting down most communications coming out of the country, they have thusfar been unable to quash the thousands of tweets coming from the protestors.

Helping the twitterers out by setting up over 9,000 proxy servers and launching DDoS attacks on Iranian government websites, the guys with plenty of time on their hands at 4chan.org seem to be this country’s major cyber warriors – all those jokes about the 101st fighting keyboard brigade must have struck a nerve. Even the Pirate bay is getting in on the action by seeding torrents of videos taken down by youtube for their graphic content.

The information coming out has included pictures of injured and dead protestors, video of the Basij thugs shooting into crowds, and communications to other protestors about which places in Tehran and elsewhere are safe to gather.

From all the information coming out, this appears to be the beginning of a big revolution in Iran. Let’s hope they can change their country for the better. Here are their demands:

Demands from the protesters

1. Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader
2. Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts
3. Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as the Supreme Leader
4. Recognition of Mousavi as the President
5. Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution
6. unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners
7. Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret.

Even with the economy in the shitter, alcohol sales are up. I felt compelled to share one of my favorite sites on the internets Modern Drunkard Magazine out of Denver. It was THIS POST about how to infiltrate the “drys” that made me chuckle. So here’s to all you teetotalers out there making our lives easier by following through and picking up our slack. I tip my glass to you.. or more specifically… away from you.. and down my throat.

Now, in the 21st century, President Obama has found his own fireside equivalent, launching an online town hall meeting Thursday where he will answer citizens’ questions about the troubled economy and his efforts to fix it.

“We’re going to try something a little different. We are going to take advantage of the Internet to bring all of you to the White House to talk about the economy,” he says in an introductory video on the site.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – South Dakota will soon be cashing in on Airbnb bookings in the state. Beginning September 1st, Airbnb will begin collecting and remitting state taxes on all bookings in South Dakota. The sales and tourism taxes will be charged when booking through Air BNB. The South Dakota Department of Revenue says the […]

BRANDON, S.D. – The City of Brandon is about to get 80 acres larger. Its development foundation purchased land on the outskirts of town for a new industrial park. Project leaders say it’ll be filled with job opportunities and incentives for manufacturing companies. Right now, a rural field off of Hemlock Blvd. is covered with […]